King of New York

There’s always something happening in the city that never sleeps. Maybe it’s the lights, maybe it’s the energy, or maybe it’s the giant monsters trying to demolish the place!

Get ready for Richard Garfield’s follow up to the best-selling King of Tokyo! Who will be the King of New York? King of New York introduces lots of new ways to play, while still keeping the core ideas of King of Tokyo. There are Buildings to Stomp! Vengeful Military Units to Destroy! Six brand new Monsters! Every roll of the dice might mean that your monster feels the OUCH, as military units open fire.

Will you grab the spotlight, and become a celebrity Superstar? Or will you become the defender of the city, and befriend Lady Liberty? Each of New York’s boroughs has its own charms, but to truly rule the Big Apple, you have to control Manhattan.

Defeat the other monsters and rule the city.... Become the King of New York!

Miami Dice, Episode 142

A gameplay and review video with Tom Vasel, Sam Healey, and Zee Garcia18:57

User Reviews (5)

I played King of Tokyo for the first time this year and I absolutely loved it! Everything about the theme, the mechanics and the illustration just screamed fun. And if being king of Tokyo wasn’t enough, along comes King of New York!

I didn’t think that anything about KoT could be made better and that’s why I was so surprised when I first played KoNY.
The replacement of the three number faces (1,2 & 3) from the die, that had to do with Victory Points, with only one face (Star) and the introduction of two completely new ones has a tremendous effect on the complexity of the game. Destroy buildings? Why, thank you! Get attacked by the army? Well that seems fair. Become a monstrous Superstar? Can’t say no to some hard earned fame! Although the basic mechanics are still the same, all of these additions give you way more choices on how you proceed in the game and a round doesn’t feel as plain as in KoT.

To make things even better, in KoNY the map is updated as it now contains 5 boroughs of the city instead of just the city as it was in KoT. That means that all monsters are on the map at all times. It feels as though you are always in the thick of it and never really safe. In this case the borough of Manhattan acts as “Tokyo” and unlike Tokyo, Manhattan is divided into three parts. Each part has a better reward than the last one and you advance through them the longer you stay in Manhattan. That makes staying there much more tempting than staying in Tokyo was, thus spicing up the game a lot.
And of course there is also new Power Up cards for you to browse through with some of them creating completely new strategies for you to follow and adding great versatility to an already rich game.

The quality of the game of course is, as in KoT, top notch. The comic illustrations totally match it’s crazy theme and they are absolutely beautiful to see. The components are the same as in KoT, with thick cardboard huge monster models (in order to tower over the puny buildings of NYC) and their respective tracking boards,thick cardboard round tokens and building tiles, black dice with green engraved symbols, green plastic cubes for the energy and of course a deck of new and colorful Power Up cards.

Overall King of New York is an amazing, fun and fast game! Richard Garfield took a great game and made it into an even better one. The changes made the theme skyrocket and the gameplay much more interesting. If you already like KoT then I guarantee you will love this one. If you’re looking for a filler dice game to hit your table, then look no further!

First, let’s quickly do a nutshell recap the well-loved fan favorite, King of Tokyo.

You’ve got four options in the original: beat up another monster, heal yourself, collect points, or save up energy for cool powers that relate to those three things. Toughed it out in Tokyo for a whole round? Here’s a minuscule amount of points — why aren’t you beating up monsters?

But that’s the appealing part of King of Tokyo. It’s easy to learn, plays fast, and is accessible whether you’re a hardcore gamer just looking for silly, cartoon-monster fun, or a novice that until recently thought Uno and Scattergories constitute modern tabletop gaming.

Arguments and outright brawls over who gets to play Cyber Bunny aside, there’s a lot of bang in that box for your 6-person dinner parties or break room gatherings. Non-gamer friends will stop by more often and drop hints that in exchange for the delicious chips and dip they brought over, maybe you can break out that monster game with the fancy black and green dice.

And then came King of New York.

King of New York is the gamer’s version of it’s younger sibling. It’s full of semi-thoughtful decisions, careful-ish planning, and “Oh no, I didn’t mean to do that!” moments.

What’s so different about IELLO’s redux of this dice-tosser?

First of all, the board is separated into five boroughs, with Manhattan playing the role that Tokyo once served as the central “mountain” each king wants to stand upon and beat his or her monstrous, scaly or furry chest.

That’s right, folks: all monsters get to hang out on a board through the entire game now, and not lounge at the fringes on your dining room table until it’s their turn to take the throne.

Also, the dice! Gone are the 1’s, 2’s, and 3’s that would pop up on your dice and elicit a mighty yawn from your lips as, instinctively, you’d reach out to re-roll them. Was that triple 3’s?! Who cares — rolling numbers is lame!

Welcome to the party your new friends: Celebrity, Destruction, and Ouch!

Celebrity is the new stand-in for those victory point numbers, taking the form of a star. Alone, a star is worthless, but roll three and you score a single point — but also the ability to get a victory point for EACH star rolled on future turns. If someone else happens to roll three stars on their turn, though? Too bad for you, pass that ”Superstar” card over!

Destruction looks like a broken building, and that’s exactly what it’s used for. Stacks of tokens occupy each borough with a value of 1 to 3, and using the indicated number of Destruction results obliterates a building, allowing you to reap the rewards of Victory Points, Health, or Energy — but also summons the military! Each tile flips into jeeps, jets, or tanks in response to your flagrant disrespect for public property. The good news? You can use your Destruction results to smash them for victory points, too!

Just don’t roll an “Ouch!” Just one of these will cause all of the military in your borough to open fire on you, causing one point of damage each. Two “Ouch!” skulls? You and a monster sharing your borough get an Air Strike Back Massage. You rolled three skulls?! Every military token in the city looses its volley of carnage on every single monster. It’s going to get messy.

This is a solid sequel. If you don’t like the new characters — which frankly I don’t, because they’re a huge stretch from the classics like The King, Gigazaur, and The Kraken — you can very easily substitute in your favorite characters from the original. Characters are still purely aesthetic, with boards that include a spinner with 12 Health and 20 VP.

Should you try or buy this game?

If you loved King of Tokyo enough to have played it even a handful of times, then yes! New York adds evolving and dynamic elements to the playing field, as monsters now have more ways to score Victory Points and more ways to take damage — Manhattan isn’t so appealing when there are two jets, a jeep, and a tank firing at anyone who rolls a skull!

If you played the original and found the formula of wounds, heals, and points a little to repetitive, head to a friend’s house or board game cafe and give this one a try — it’s especially entertaining with a group of 5 or 6.

I read a brief description of this game on amazon and decided to pick it up. My friends and I do aboard game league and I have gotten quite a few games in the last 5 months and am just starting to feel at home now with the rules of all of them. We meet twice a week and usually play for 4 to 5 hours.
The problem we were finding was sometimes you finish up a game and realize there is an hour or so left and you would like to fill that time and get extra points. Our problem was we wanted something a) quick to set up, b) quick to play, c)competitive enough to warrant replays.
This game ticks all of those boxes and is very neat and tidy.

Replay: It is basically a dice game mixed with King of the Hill and can be played by 2 to 6 players, (Recommend all 6) Whoever enters the center, (the Hill) can hurt all the other players, while the other players all hurt him. Being in the center, though, nets you the easiest point rewards, so there is a good risk/ reward temptation to be in the center. Cards can also be bought to add powers to your monster. Another great point is that it lasts 30 mins to an hour, depending on the amount of players. My six year old daughter enjoys playing this with my wife and I also, so that is a big plus as she asks to play board games a lot and this is quick and easy for her to learn.

Components: I am a big fan of detailed 3D pieces, this has cards containing very nice artwork, but full figures would be nicer. Dice are nice and chunky and would not be lost.

Easy to learn: As I said, my six year old can play it, but my friends and I are in our thirties and we enjoy it also.

Give it a go if you are looking for a fun, quick game.

People who will like:
People who like a good scrap in a board game and people looking to get quick points on a league table.

People who will not like:
People who need strategic depth from their games.

Overview
King of New York is the sequel to the popular King of Tokyo (KoT) game that brings some refreshing changes without spoiling the fun. The Big Apple is under attack from a whole new slew of monsters. Everybody was “kaiju” fighting…it was so exciting!

Pros
More thematic
More interesting decisions
Lots of conflict, less “turtling”

Cons
A little less accessible than KoT
KoT: Power up expansion not compatible with KoNY

Gameplay

For those who have played King of Tokyo, the gameplay will be very familiar. You roll six dice up to three times for the results you want much like Yahtzee. You’ll still find energy for purchasing cards, hearts for healing, and claws for attacking. There are few tweaks such as your monsters staying in boroughs of New York which is not always safe. The main borough to score points is Manhattan, and it has different scoring stages the longer you stay in it. The biggest difference is that there are no numbers on the dice, but those have been replaced with “stars”. If you role enough stars, you get the “superstar” card which nets you more points when rolling stars. This card can be taken from you if someone else rolls the right amount of starts. There are also “building” icons on the dice which allow you to destroy buildings in boroughs for bonus health, points, or energy. Those building that are destroyed turn into military vehicles which act like the humans fighting back. They do fight back when you roll skulls, and depending on how many skulls you roll, the attacks could potentially not just affect you but every monster in New York. Those same military vehicles can be destroyed by the building icons on the dice as well.

Now, all these changes leads to a lot more damage flying around the city, so there will be a lot less camping outside the main area to heal up. This is particularly true once a few military vehicles are in the area. Very few games will end in someone winning by the normal 20 victory points. Most likely, the surviving monster will be the winner.

Conclusion

Given this, I think I like King of New York much better than it’s big brother, King of Tokyo. I find the decisions in the game more interesting. Decisions like should I attack this building to get a benefit, knowing that military vehicles will show up or should I attempt roll more skulls so that I can damage everyone’s monster as well as my own hoping to take someone out. That’s just to name a couple. I like the addition of being able to destroy buildings and have military fight back. This feels more thematic and seemed lacking in King of Tokyo. The cards seem a lot more interesting, and some of them work really well together if you can get them to combine. There is still a lot of luck, because there is dice and cards. However, there are many cards if they come up and you can purchase them that help mitigate the luck of the dice. You can use your monsters from KoT, but you will not be able to use the Power Up expansion cards with the game, since the dice have changed. Also, since there is a lot more damage, there is less people turtling to heal up, and it makes the game go faster.

If you like King of Tokyo, you should really give this one a shot. I think it might be a better version in my book. However, if you don’t like KoT, I doubt there is much more for you to like unless you were wanting a more “in your face” experience with better decisions. Also, if you like KoT, but still struggle with the conflict and player elimination some, then KoNY is probably not for you.

It’s a good game and fun to play.

Gamer Recommendations

Family Gamer – MAYBE – I don’t see any problems with kids playing if they’re okay with direct conflict and player eliminationSocial Gamer – MAYBE – If your idea of socializing is trash talking with your buddies.Casual Gamer – MAYBE – a few more rules, but still not heavyStrategy Gamer – NO – not much long term strategyAvid Gamer – YES – Lots of funPower Gamer – NO – Not a lot of depth.

Once you are done playing King of Tokyo, you should move onto it’s sequel, King of New York. In KONY, you have what you know about King of Tokyo but with a bigger board as well as extra rules and components added such as a the outside non-Kaiju elements that will affect the game. This really adds more action into the mix because now, it is not just about Kaiju fighting but also worrying about what the humans can do to your character.

If you enjoyed King of Tokyo, you will enjoy this. But I personally find that whether you decide to break out King of Tokyo or King of New York will depend on your gaming group. If you are playing with a lot of first time gamers, then play King of Tokyo because that is a very fun simplified version of the game. It is essentially the base game. King of New York, while it is still a simple game, it adds more elements to the game and will require a little more thinking and strategy as well as a few extra steps jn the turn phases. But it definitely makes the game more interesting and it also makes the game board more appropriate considering that there’s more than just 2 spaces to occupy. I would say get this game if you are a fan of KOT or if you just want to jump into a party game which has a tiny bit more depth and strategy, then you can’t go wrong with KONY.